In Saturday’s Cubs/Dodgers game in Los Angeles, first base umpire Jerry Layne called the Dodgers’ Xavier Paul safe on a close play at first base.
↵Except he wasn’t. Look:
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Now on what baseball planet is this runner safe? Had the correct call been made, the Cubs would have been out of the inning with no runs scoring, because the next three batters went: strikeout, single, fly out. Instead, with two runners on and two out, there was another hit and an error that led to two Dodgers runs.
↵Lou Piniella, in a rare show of righteous anger, was ejected after this inning was over.
↵If MLB had replay for plays like this, the umpires would have looked at it, corrected their mistake, the Dodgers wouldn’t have scored, and Lou wouldn’t have been tossed.
↵At this writing it is 7-2 Cubs and they’ll likely win the game anyway — but what on Earth would be wrong with getting the call right?
↵I’d wait for Bud Selig to answer, but it’s unlikely I’d ever get a rational one.